Iron Man Is Now A 15-Year-Old Black Girl Named Riri Williams

Once Marvel’s Civil War II saga concludes in the comic section, there’s going to be a new Iron Man. Well, Iron Man technically. After everything dies down, Tony Stark is finally stepping away from his one suit of conflict and moving on – and a 15-year-old black girl named Riri Williams is taking over.

In an exclusive interview with TIME, Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis revealed the creative process behind Williams and why she’s taking over for one of Marvel’s more iconic heroes at the conclusion of Civil War II.

“One of the things that stuck with me when I was working in Chicago a couple of years ago on a TV show that didn’t end up airing was the amount of chaos and violence,” he told TIME. “And this story of this brilliant, young woman whose life was marred by tragedy that could have easily ended her life—just random street violence—and went off to college was very inspiring to me. I thought that was the most modern version of a superhero or superheroine story I had ever heard. And I sat with it for awhile until I had the right character and the right place.”

Williams’ origin story if you need any simplification is that of a 15-year-old science genius who enrolled at MIT and built her own Iron Man suit in her dorm room. Stark is already aware of her reverse-engineering one of his old suits, much how in Captain America: Civil War Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man knows what Spider-Man’s been up to in Queens, even if the rest of the world hasn’t caught on yet.

Marvel switching genders or races of certain characters has occurred in the comics for quite sometime. A few years ago the comic institution introduced Mexican-American Miles Morales to replace Peter Parker as Spider-Man. Jessica Jones, a Hero for Hire has a child with Luke Cage. Of course, any of these moves has been met with online backlash from fans and Bendis is well aware of it.

“Some of the comments online, I don’t think people even realize how racist they sound. I’m not saying if you criticize you’re a racist, but if someone writes, “Why do we need Riri Williams we already have Miles?” that’s a weird thing to say,” Bendis said, “They’re individuals just like Captain America and Cyclops are individuals. All I can do is state my case for the character, and maybe they’ll realize over time that that’s not the most progressive thinking.”

As far as the ending of Civil War II, that’s still to be decided. For now, we at least know Tony Stark has had enough with superhero life and plans to leave his technology in the hands of a brilliant bit of black girl magic in Riri Williams.

About The Author

Brandon Caldwell is the founder & editor-in-chief of Day & A Dream. His work has appeared in VIBE, UPROXX, Complex, EBONY, the Village Voice, the Houston Press, Houston Style Magazine, DJBooth, The Sports Fans Journal, and more. Follow him on Twitter: @_brandoc